Week 3

The chapters assigned from Fatima Mernissi's book address issues that often arise with the relevance of hadith, which are, the context of the hadith and the reliability of its source. In her book, Mernissi does something that may be considered taboo by many - which is study and question the reliability of the companions of the prophet who narrated hadith. I found these readings particularly engaging because of the author’s ability to present her case systematically, using history and reasoning, and ultimately convincing her reader to consider that there may be some room to doubt the accounts of two revered companions of the Prophets – Abu Bakr and Abu Hurayra.

Each aforementioned companion narrated a hadith that demeaned women. The Hadith narrated by Abu Bakr suggests that the Prophet discouraged women’s involvement in leadership and politics and the hadith by Abu Hurayra put women in the same category as dogs and donkeys. After stating the misogynic hadith, Mernissi unfold the history behind the hadith studying in detail who narrated it and the context in which the Prophet is reported to have said it. She also does a great job emphasizing how the Prophet’s wives, especially Ai’sha, refuted the validity of the Hadith based on their intimate knowledge of the Prophet and his behavior. What caught me off guard about the readings is that the author questions the validity of hadith not for the interpretive possibilities, but instead presents to the reader evidence that the above companions did not meet the criteria for reliable narrators of Hadith due to suspicions of dishonesty.